The invention relates to an automatic transmission having an operator control which has at least one manually actuable switching rocker which is arranged on a steering wheel and which comprises a sensor for sensing the actuation and is connected via a signal path to a transmission control device of the automatic transmission.
Nowadays, in vehicles with an automatic transmission the drive position (P, R, N, D, M, S) which is selected by a driver is sensed electronically by a switching signal and is transmitted to the transmission control device via a data bus. This technology is referred to as shift-by-wire. In this context, vehicles with an automatic transmission generally have a steering wheel with at least one switching rocker in order to be able to switch gear stages manually. The switching rockers usually have a microswitch and the transmission of the signal to the transmission control device is not secured.
EP 2 101 086 A1 describes an operator control for an automatic transmission in which the selection of drive positions and gearspeeds is carried out by switching rockers on the steering wheel.
DE 102 41 014 A1 discloses an automatic transmission having an operator control, in which in the case of manual actuation of an operator control, information is transmitted to an electronic transmission controller via a bus system.
DE 100 18 661 A1 proposes an operator control for changing a drive position or gear stage of an automatic transmission, switching information being transmitted via a vehicle-specific bus system here.
Conventional automatic transmissions have the disadvantage that for safety reasons actuation of the switching rockers does not permit drive positions to be selected. For example, it would be desirable to change from the drive position or gear stage P, R, N directly to M by actuating a switching rocker, in order to switch on a manual forward movement program. Since such switching processes are categorized as safety-relevant functions, the selection of the drive position cannot be carried out by simple actuation of a switching rocker which is characterized by“+” or “−”.